Other Food Allergies

Virgin Blue (Australia)

This is for Australian air travellers or anyone that is coming to Australia in the future and will be flying within Australia with Virgin Blue and carry an epipen.

I got this information from [url="http://www.allergyfacts.org.au"]www.allergyfacts.org.au[/url] regarding Virgin Blues policy regarding anaphylaxis and carrying an epipen.

"Important news for Virgin Blue travellers

Those at risk of anaphylaxis must now get a Medical Clearance Form from Virgin Blue airlines completed by their doctor before flying. Individuals must have a letter from their doctor stating they must carry an EpiPen

The other main airlines in Australia (Qantas, Jetstar) don't have a policy like this new one at Virgin Blue and also Virgin is an international company and I find it strange that their policies are not uniform across the board with their other airlines around the world (Virgin Atlantic, Virgin American to name a couple).

There are other airlines to travel with within Australia who do not have a policy like this. I just wanted to warn anyone who may travel to Australia in the future to be aware of Virgin Blues new policy so they don't book flights and get here and are stuck because they haven't filled in their medical clearance form. They are a great airline (apart from this new policy).

Beware of Virgin Blue! A few years ago my family and i flew Brisbane to Tasmania, i carried my epipen with doctors note, went straight through security without being questioned. However on the return flight, couldnt get out of Hobart (tasmania) airport. First i was told i would not be able to travel with the epipen on board, which was ok because they could put it below, and i wouldn't have eaten on the plane (i'm anaphylactic but not terribly sensitive). Then i was told I wouldnt be allowed to fly without it because the allergy is life threatening so the specialised letter had to be faxed through to my specialist - who wasnt working on a Sat - so it had to go through a GP (which the airline wasn't happy about)
Finally we got the specialised letter - only after over 4 hours of delays, missing all consequent direct flights to Brisbane, so we had to go through Sydney and swap flights! It was a complete nightmare and handled terribly by the airline from start to finish!